Living in the Dark
by Always a Bookworm
Summary: Keeping secrets from your friends is hard. Especially when they tend to be rather overprotective of you, as you share your mind with a homicidal maniac. So when things got a bit out of hand, I did the only thing I could think of. I didn't tell them.
1. Waking up

**Warnings: Fluff. And a lot of it. There may be some angst/ gore later on, but nothing too bad. **

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

**No flames please! Enjoy! ^^**

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It was very dark. That's all that registered in my mind when I first woke up. All I could see was a blurred shape in the corner. That would be Bakura; he always stayed with me after the beatings. It seems strange, but he takes care of me afterwards. He bandages the cuts almost tenderly. I used to think it was because he didn't want his body becoming damaged, but even now he has his own body, he still does it. I've never understood it, and I've never dared to ask him.

I was lying on the bed. Slowly, tentatively, I ran my fingers over my skin. Last night must have been bad, I thought , wincing as my cold fingers brushed over the fresh bruises. There seemed to be an awful lot of blood. The sheets were dyed red. That's irritating, I remember thinking. Blood takes forever to come out.

Well, this won't clean itself up, I told myself. Time to get up.

I limped across the room, and tugged the curtains open. Light flooded into the room, and my breath hitched in my throat. Last night must have been _really_ bad, I thought, as I stared in a horrified daze at the chaos that was my usually immaculate apartment. Broken furniture, smashed photo frames, torn cushions… and blood everywhere.

I sighed in resignation. Damn. This would take forever to clean! My eyes rested on the sleeping form of my yami. He looked almost innocent in sleep. Like a child. Ironic, considering that this turmoil was all his doing.

That was when I realised something. I opened the curtains, but there was still darkness on one side of the room. Puzzled, I turned to see what could be causing it, but as I turned the darkness moved. Strange.

I suppose it was due to blood loss, or exhaustion, or pain that I didn't realise right away. Or maybe I knew all along, but it was too horrifying to even contemplate.

"Bakura." My voice shook, even though I was trying so hard not to panic. "Bakura, wake up. Something's wrong."

I wasn't speaking loudly, but somehow the quiet terror in my voice cut through his sleep, and he opened his eyes immediately. I must have looked odd, standing in the middle of the room, staring straight ahead, as if I was frozen.

"What is it, brat? This had better be good- you know better than to wake me without proper reason." His voice was chilling and soft, as it always was, but for some reason it didn't send shivers down my spine that way it normally did. I was too concerned with that unexplainable darkness.

"Bakura, come here. Please." My voice was so quiet that it was amazing that he heard me at all. I think it must have worried him that I didn't flinch at his voice, like normal, so he stood up swiftly and crossed the room to my side.

"What is it?"

"I….. I can't see."

"What? You can't see me?"

"Yeah, I can see you now… but on my other side, Bakura I can't see anything out of my left eye!" My voice had risen; I was really scared now.

"Okay, calm down," he snapped. "Stay still." He moved around me slowly. When he disappeared from my vision, I couldn't bite back the cry of fear.

"You can't see me?"

I shook my head, afraid that if I spoke, I would not be able to hold back the tears.

He moved back into my sight, and a strange sense of relief filled me. It felt as though he had been lost in that strange sea of darkness, even though I knew he had been standing right next to me.

"And you can see me now?"

I nodded.

A peculiar expression filled his eyes. Pity? Sadness? Whatever it was, it broke the barrier, and tears spilled down my face. Tears that on my left side were mixed with blood. He gently wiped away the tears with his thumb, and I leaned my face on his hand.

"Hikari…"

"Yes." I whispered. "Last night… I think you blinded me in one eye."

Suddenly it seemed very real.

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**What do you think? Should I keep it in Ryou's POV or change it to 3rd Person?**

**I probably won't update for a while, because I'm really busy (it's my birthday in two days ^^) but chap 2 should be up within the next few weeks.**

**Anyway, thanks for reading!**

**-Always a Bookworm**


	2. Losing it

**This is quite a lot shorter than the first chapter, but they will get longer. Anyways, enjoy!**

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Okay, so I'm blind in one eye. That's not so bad, right? Better one eye than both.... My thoughts were going round in circles. I'd been doing this all day- I would not allow myself to accept that I would never see again out of my left eye. I couldn't accept it.

I'd called the school, and told them I was ill. Which was pretty much true.

Bakura had locked himself in his room, and hadn't come out for the duration of the day. I didn't know what he was doing; he'd closed off the mind link. Normally I would be grateful for this small moment of privacy, but now it just made me feel even more alone.

I was sitting on the sofa, trying to work out what on earth I was going to do.

Go to the hospital, I urged myself, Get some medical attention.

But if you go to the hospital there will be questions. How did you end up like this, who did this to you, on and on. When they find out about Bakura, he'll be arrested, it'll be all over the news....

Okay, so I don't go to the hospital. How about Malik? He'll know what to do.

He'll send Bakura to the shadow realm, more like.

He is rather overprotective... Well then, what about Yugi?

He'll tell Atem, and, again, Bakura ends up in the shadows.

Well I've got to tell someone! Who?

...

And that's just it. I couldn't think of anyone I could tell without serious consequences. My best friends either had 'anger management issues' or a yami that had been waiting to destroy a certain Ring spirit for over three millennia. All my other friends would tell Yugi immediately. The situation was not too good.

But…

What if I didn't tell anyone?

I shook my head, half smiling. That was the most ridiculous idea I'd had so far. You can't just not tell people that you're blind in one eye. I couldn't just go to school as if nothing had happened. Not being able to see out of half of your face isn't exactly something that you can shrug off as unimportant.

But you don't have any other choice, I reasoned with myself.

There is no other way. There is no other way to keep Bakura safe.

They'll kill me for not telling them if they do find out.

But they won't find out.

Why am I protecting my darker self? I have absolutely no idea. I've obviously lost it.

I rested my head in my hands and groaned.

When did my life get so complicated?

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**See you next time!**

**Always a Bookworm**


	3. My Friends have Psychic Powers

**Living in the Dark, Take 3! Thanks so much to everyone that's reviewed so far, it makes me very happy! ^^**

**By the way, I probably should have said this in the first chapter, but this is going to be non-yaoi. In fact, there aren't going to be any pairings at all- this is a friendship fic.**

**I was planning on this being really angsty, but it kind of turned out funny, so I just gave up and made it much more light hearted than I'd originally planned. Anyway, I hope you all like it!**

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"Bakura! Bakura!"

An annoyed voice drifted down the stairs.

"What do you want? I told you not to wake me up!"

I sighed, but continued to pack my bag. "I'm going to school."

There was a moment of silence. I winced. I hadn't actually told Bakura of my plan, and, to be honest, I had no idea how he would take it.

He appeared at the top of the stairs. He said that I'd woken him up, but, to be honest, he didn't look as though he'd been sleeping. He had purple shadows under his eyes, his hair was tousled and tangled, and his skin was ashen white. He looked even more like me than usual. I hadn't seen him since yesterday morning, and I was surprised at his appearance- he _never _looked exhausted.

"What. Did. You. Say?" he whispered, looking a cross between astonished, confused and irritated.

I resolutely continued to collect my school books together. "I'm going to school. Nothing strange about that; I do go every day."

Bakura was plainly out of his depth. "Have you lost your mind? You can't go to school like that!" he almost yelled.

I glared at him. "Like what?"

He sank into a chair, trying to control his temper. "You are blind in one eye. How are you going to explain _that_ to your little friends, hey?"

I turned my back on him, and said quietly "I'm not going to tell them."

"Excuse me?"

I rounded on him. "I said I'm not going to tell them! Shouldn't you be pleased that I'm saving you? Shouldn't you thank me? This is all your fault! You deserve to be sent to the Shadows!" I panted for breath- I'd never yelled like that in my life.

Bakura looked shocked at my outburst. We stared at each other for a few seconds, but then I grabbed my bag and made for the door, furious with him.

"Why?"

That stopped me in my tracks. He sounded almost…timid? Or at the very least confused.

"Why, what?" I asked, without looking at him.

"Why are you saving me?"

I didn't answer. Slamming the door behind me, I ran out of the house.

Or rather, I couldn't answer.

*

"Ryou!"

I looked over my shoulder, to see Malik running over. Right, phase one of Operation Act like Everything is Perfectly Normal begins.

"Hi, Malik," I smiled at him, trying not to look too nervous.

"Hey," he arrived next to me, frowning. "Are you OK?"

Damn, does he have some sort of physic power? Note to self: work on acting skills, especially around Malik.

"Yeah, I'm fine! Just…um…nervous about that maths test today, I guess," I tried my best to look innocent.

"Maths test? Oh no, I forgot!" The usual scramble for notes half an hour before the test ensued. I sighed in relief. Malik was just so easy to distract- he always forgot about studying.

Just as I was arranging my features into a calm expression, who should come running up but Yugi and his gaggle of friends. Now, most of the time I'm quite happy to see them, but today I had sort of been planning on avoiding them as much as possible.

"Hi guys!" Yugi called, the ever-present cheery grin plastered onto his face. I shifted slightly so that I could see them, hoping that no one would notice.

"Hi, Yugi!" I replied. Malik just grunted from his position on the ground, surrounded by maths books.

"Forgot the test again, Malik?" Tea asked, sympathetically. "Never mind. Oh and Ryou, I love your hair."

Trust a girl to be the one to notice. All my male friends had just passed over the fact that my white hair hung over one side of my face a lot more than normal. In fact, it covered up the blind eye, but they didn't know that.

"I just thought it was time for a change," I replied, smiling at her.

"It's great! But I'm amazed that you can see at all through that screen of hair."

_I _was amazed at the irony of that remark, but, luckily, before I could respond the bell rang out, and we all had to rush to class. Talk about being saved by the bell, I thought as I sank into my chair for my first class. I could only hope that I would continue to have such good luck.

What for the rest of your life? You can't just rely on 'good luck' forever, Ryou. Eventually they'll find out.

I decided to ignore the voice of reason nagging at me.

*

It was lunch time, and the day was not going well. Well, to be fair there weren't any homicidal maniacs trying to kill my friends by taking up residence in my head, and so far no one had beaten me up, but all the same it was a pretty bad day.

All my teachers had eyed my new haircut with what can only be described as disdain, and ignored me for the rest of the lesson. I kept jumping when anyone came up on my blind side without me hearing them, which meant that by 12.00 the entire cafeteria was gossiping about how unusually nervous I was (when I say the entire cafeteria, I mean every single one the girls that stalk me and call themselves my fans. The fact that they filled most of the cafeteria shows that there were quite a few of them.) And to top it all off I'd failed the Maths test. Yes, the day was going badly.

I was toying with my salad, when Malik came over and dumped his tray next to mine. Of course, he came up on my blind side, and I jumped so violently that I knocked over my drink.

"You OK?" he asked, eyeing the water all over the table, which I was trying to clean up surreptitiously. "You've been really edgy all day."

" I'm fine," I tried to pull off a smile but I was too exhausted.

He gave me a look which told me that there was no way he was buying that one. "Problems with the yami?"

The good thing about Malik was that, having a crazed psychopath as an other half himself, he understood what life was like for me a lot more than anyone else did. Although, at the moment he and Marik actually got on pretty well. When I say 'pretty well' I mean they would argue all the time, drive everyone else insane, but swear that they were the best of friends to anyone that asked. And the strange thing was, they really were best of friends. It was comforting, watching them do things together, like racing their bikes, or having a duel tournament (considering they could read each other's mind it's not really a proper game.) I almost hoped that Bakura and I could be like that.

"Yeah," I sighed, as I gave up on the water, and returned to playing with my food. "A few."

Malik nodded. "It'll blow over. Eventually he's going to have to accept that you're his hikari, and until then you just have to bear with him." He looked at me sideways. "He doesn't still… beat you, or anything, does he?"

"Oh no! Nononononononononono," I shook my head frantically, denying it so fast that it's incredible Malik didn't get suspicious. "We just… don't get on very well, that's all." I gave up on my salad. "Can we talk about something else?"

Malik grinned, and started to talk about Marik and Ishizu's latest argument, which apparently was over the neighbour's noisy dog being sent to the Shadow Realm, which, as Malik argued, was unfair because there was no real proof that Marik had done it, apart from Ishizu's 'Well who else could have?'

I smiled. Malik could always cheer me up. I wanted to tell him so badly, but I knew that I couldn't. My heart ached to think that I was keeping such a huge secret from him, my best friend.

But I knew that I had no other choice.

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**Well, if you thought this ending was cheesy, you should have seen the 1st draft! Thanks for reading!**

**Always a Bookworm**


	4. An Evening with Friends

**Hello again! Here's chapter 4.**

**By the way, thank you so much for all your lovely reviews, everyone. They make my day! ^^**

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Well, I'd managed to get through my first day at school, I thought, as I walked slowly home through the quiet streets of my neighbourhood. I wasn't in any hurry to get home, as Bakura would definitely be furious about my outburst that morning.

How could you have been so stupid! I berated myself. Do you want to be blinded in both eyes? Simple rule- don't yell at the evil psycho- but no, you just _had_ to go and ask for extreme punishment and agony. Oh, well done Ryou. The situation was handled brilliantly.

I decided that I my voice of reason needed to be less sarcastic.

I paused before the front door of my 'home'. The home that I'd been tortured in. The home that I'd lost everything in. The home where I wasn't safe. The only home I had.

He was in there. I could hear him moving around inside. I raised my hand to open the door, but then I hesitated. I turned on my heel and walked swiftly away. I wanted to put off the moment when I had to face him for as long as possible. So I went to the Yugi's Game Shop.

All of his friends were there, and though they looked surprised to see me, they were fairly welcoming.

"Hi, Ryou," Yugi smiled, thoughtfully not asking any questions about my unprecedented appearance at his Shop, and getting me a drink.

The rest of them just nodded, smiling. I sank into a chair, relieved that there were no questions fired at me that would be difficult to answer.

"Ryou! Surprised to see you- that yami of yours let you out for once?"

I winced; trust Joey to lack so much tact.

"Um…yeah, I guess," I mumbled, awkwardly. Joey plainly wanted to tease me more, but Tea punched him on the arm.

"Ow! What you do that for?" he yelled indignantly. Tea just rolled her eyes and sighed in irritation.

"Oh, stop being such an idiot for just five minutes!" she hissed.

A lengthy argument ensued, which thankfully drew the attention away from me. I was just beginning to relax when who should walk in but the last person I wanted to see. Yugi's, kind, but annoyingly arrogant, yami.

I had nothing against Atem, although if I ever told Bakura that then I would probably be discovered in several different pieces having suffered an agonising death. Unfortunately, he was very perceptive, and this worried me. He was the most likely person to realise if I wasn't behaving normally. I sank further into the chair, trying to make myself as inconspicuous as possible.

"Hey, yami," Yugi called from his chess game with Tristan (seriously, he never stops playing games).

Atem grinned and started over the room to help Tristan, who was (unsurprisingly), losing badly. But when he was halfway there he turned his head slightly, saw me and frowned. I paled.

"Ryou?"

The room was suddenly very quiet. Everyone knew how much my yami and Atem hated one another. I know that Atem used to tell Yugi to stay away from me, as I could be in league with Bakura, but he seemed to have reluctantly become accustomed to my friendship with his small hikari. That doesn't mean to say that he liked, let alone trusted me.

I avoided his gaze. "Hi," I whispered.

Atem seemed about to ask something, but then obviously changed his mind and, with an effort, he smiled and replied, "Nice to see you."

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, and went back to their conversations.

I was rather surprised that he hadn't even asked where Bakura was, but I decided just to let it go. I closed my eyes- eye, really- and began to drift off. I was so tired, and I knew that there was no way I could sleep peacefully at home…

The next thing I knew was coming back into reality with an abrupt jolt. Joey and Tristan were throwing the empty drinks cans to and fro, and one of them had hit me on my torso. Usually, that wouldn't have hurt at all, but I had recently received fairly bad injuries in that area, and even the slightest impact sent a bolt of pain through my body. I cried out.

"Oh, sorry, Ryou. Didn't mean to wake you," apologised an embarrassed Joey. "It was all Tristan's fault, he didn't catch it…"

"Hey," Tristan yelled. "It was you that threw it!"

They started bickering, loudly.

"Doesn't matter. I gasped. "I'm OK." I clutched my stomach, screwing up my eyes.

"Well, well," a soft voice murmured in my ear. "Looks like little hikari is hurt. Now, would that have happened if he had come straight home like a good little light?"

My eyes snapped open in horror. In front of me, all my friends were staring over my shoulder with expressions that ranged from shock and worry to anger. Fearing the worst, I slowly turned my good eye round, to where that hissing, deadly voice had come from. Sure enough, there was Bakura, red eyes glinting, smiling in a dangerous way. He ignored the others; I knew this was a bad sign. When all his attention was focused on one person, they were in for it. I swallowed.

"Bakura," I whispered. "I'm really …"

I didn't have time to finish my sentence. With a roar of rage, Bakura grabbed my hair and pulled me up, knocking over the chair. Tea screamed.

He twisted me round to face him. "Never. Disobey. Me. Again." He spat in my face. "Do you understand?" he shook me violently. I couldn't do anything but nod.

As abruptly as he'd grabbed it, he released my hair. It was spotted with blood (very obvious against the white) and my head ached. He retained a tight grip on my arm.

To be honest, the punishment hadn't been that bad. If I didn't know better, I'd have said he was going easy on me. But dread threatened to drown me once again, as he turned to my friends. Please don't hurt them, I begged in my mind, hoping that he would hear this through the mind link. Bakura's only response was a derisive snort and a, I have much better things to do with my time.

Sighing in relief, I dared to look at their expressions. They all looked disgusted, as I knew they would. I felt my face flush as I bowed my head. Now they all knew how weak I was.

Bakura growled in displeasure as he saw the Pharaoh.

"Keep away from my Hikari, you arrogant brat. He's my concern. Not yours. He belongs to me. Understand?"

Atem looked ready to explode with fury, but managed to keep calm. I was relieved about this- I really didn't want Bakura killing him, or the other way around.

Without another word, Bakura turned and stormed out of the Shop, dragging me behind him.

Well, for an evening spent relaxing with my friends, that could have gone better. I didn't dare think about how much longer they would be my friends for, now that they had seen what a pathetic weakling I was.

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** I didn't like this chapter so much, but don't worry; they will get better. I'll see you all next time!**

**Always a Bookworm**


	5. Laughter is the Best Medicine

**Hi, again! This chapter was going to be really long, but I decided to split it into two chapters, because there would have been too much going on if I left it as only one chapter. Basically, this means Chapter 6 should be up really soon, and also that this chapter is pretty much pointless fluff. I'm sorry; I love fluff! ^^ **

* * *

So, basically I was being dragged along the street by a red-eyed, white-haired psycho, who was muttering threats under his breath, and glaring at random people on the pavement. Not conspicuous or embarrassing at all.

"Bakura! Bakura, slow down!" I panted. He can walk really fast when he wants to, and my arm was close to being pulled out of its socket.

Bakura ignored me, so I gave up, and concentrated on running. I decided to take this opportunity to have a heart-to-heart talk with my yami; as he was ignoring me he couldn't exactly tell me to shut up.

"Yami, come on. You don't have to be so violent all the time. And you did over react a tiny bit. I mean, I was just spending some time with my friends. "

Bakura refused to acknowledge me, but he did start to walk even faster- at this rate we'd be home before I could finish my lecture.

"Bakura, please listen to me."

Nothing.

"Look at me!" We were approaching home by now, on a deserted street. I rolled my eyes in exasperation and anger, and stopped. It took all of my strength to wrench my arm out of his grip, but somehow I managed it, and this got his attention.

"Please! Look at me! Don't ignore me. I'm your hikari. You're supposed to be kind to me! You're supposed to care for me!"

Bakura merely folded his arms and glared. I was getting more furious by the second. My voice rose in pitch.

"Bakura, all you do is hurt me. Do you even give a damn about what happens to me? If I died tomorrow, you wouldn't even come to my funeral. What am I supposed to do, huh? I tried so hard to believe in you. I gave you so many second chances. I gave you too many second chances."

Bakura was plainly confused by this, and held out a hand. "Ryou…"

I slapped his hand away. "No!" The sane corner of my brain observed that I had completely lost it. I'd lost my temper more times in the last two days, than I had in the last few years! Maybe I should consider sharing Malik's anger management classes.

"I give up! I've had it. I'm giving up trying to help you. There's only so much one person can take, and I've had enough."

Bakura looked completely astonished. And then he did two things that shocked me to my very core. His face took on the expression that I saw sometimes on my own face, when my father had rung to make another of his excuses about not returning home. He looked lost. He looked….upset?

The second thing was what he said. He spoke in a quiet voice. "You're right."

I wasn't expecting that. "Excuse me?" I whispered.

He bowed his head, and stared determinedly at the ground. "You're right. I am a pretty awful yami. I'm nothing like Marik or…" the word caught in his throat, but he managed to spit it out. "Atem."

We stood like that for several minutes. I was completely bewildered, and Bakura was looking everywhere but straight at me. He moved away, and slumped down on a bench at the side of the street, still glaring at the ground.

My mind was in turmoil, to say the least. Bakura had just apologised to me. The Bakura that had spent over five years making my life a misery. The Bakura that had blinded me in one eye. The Bakura that had ruined everything.

And in that one moment, I knew why I hadn't told my friends about him. I knew why I'd protected him.

It was because he was the Bakura that meant more to me than anything. He was the Bakura that would bandage my wounds after he beat me. The Bakura that provided support when my father didn't come home for Christmas. The Bakura that stole souls so that I wouldn't be lonely.

Sure, he showed affection in a seriously messed up way. But at least he was sincere. And he really was sorry.

I walked over to him and sat down next to him.

"You know," I said softly. "I'd rather have you as a yami than the other two."

Bakura still avoided my gaze, and made a grunting noise which sounded like "Yeah, right."

"I mean it. Atem's way too pompous, and I'd hate having to play games all the time. He's such a bad loser! And Marik, well, Marik's a bit too… intense, you know? I suppose he's all right for Malik, but to be honest, I'd find his tendency to savagely murder small mammals a bit of a problem."

I watched the sun begin to set out of my good eye. It was silent for a few minutes.

Then Bakura chuckled. "He _is _a bad loser."

I smiled in relief. "Most definitely."

He looked at me sideways, with a half smile on his lips. "Just for the record, I'd rather have you as a hikari than the Pharaoh's brat, or the Ishtar kid."

And for the first time in a long time, I began to laugh. Laughter that wasn't forced. Laughter that didn't really have a cause. I just laughed for the hell of it. So we sat there for some time, as the sun went down, just laughing, as passers-by gave us strange looks, and it slowly became dark.

* * *

***Bows head in guilt* I apologise to anyone who was sick after reading that. It was a bit of an overload of fluff! **

**Always a Bookworm**


	6. Of Love and Friendship

**Here you are, Chapter 6! Now, the first half of this may seem really pointless, but I didn't want it to seem too intense, so I added some light-heartedness. Hope you enjoy- I loved writing this one! ^^**

* * *

I got a phone call from Yugi and Malik the next day, and my heart sank as soon as I put down the phone. No guesses as to what they wanted to talk about. Yugi had obviously blabbed to Malik about the little… ahem, disagreement at the Game Shop yesterday. Knowing Malik he had probably been devising ways to get back at Bakura all night, most likely involving Shadow Magic, sharp objects or fire.

Bakura was still asleep as I left the house to go to the local café that we had arranged to meet in. I hadn't spoken to him since last night; I was worried that our fragile bond might be shattered forever if I woke him up to early. Bakura is_ not_ a morning person.

I dreaded having to confront my friends; Yugi wouldn't understand Bakura's complex mood swings, and Malik would be too incensed to listen to my explanation. Add to that the small matter of not being able to see them when they moved a certain way, it made my situation a rather unhappy one.

I sighed in irritation, as I walked hurriedly down the street. I soon arrived at the café, and, sure enough, there were my two friends engaged in a serious conversation. I was secretly pleased that they were worried about me, but all the same, it did make my life quite difficult. I went in, and sat gingerly down at their table, shrugging off my coat.

"Hi," I greeted them, trying to sound as bright as I usually did.

"Ryou, there are a few things we need to talk about," Malik said, in an unusually serious tone. This was definitely a bad sign.

"Um…" I tried to interrupt.

"No, let us talk first," Malik insisted.

I nodded, and leaned back in my chair. Malik took a deep breath, seeming to gain confidence from Yugi's determined nod, and began to talk.

"Ryou, you were acting really strange all day at school yesterday. And Yugi says that you were kind of tense at the Shop, until Bakura took you away. (Here I stiffened) Now, I realise that we probably shouldn't be prying, but we like to think that you would tell us if… you had anything on your mind."

I frowned. I'd expected him to start on the topic of Bakura immediately, but instead he seemed to be really embarrassed. He'd even turned bright red. I was confused- Malik _never_ blushes. Yugi also looked slightly embarrassed, but that's not such a strange sight.

"Anyway…. What I, what we think… is that…um….well, you see," Malik was plainly flustered. Yugi elbowed him, and hissed something I couldn't hear under his breath. I was completely bewildered.

"What Malik is trying to say, is that you seem like you've been behaving differently around some of the girls in our class. One of the girls in particular; Akita Sasaki."

They'd completely lost me. I stared at them blankly.

"You know, Akita Sasaki? Blond girl, quite tall, sits next to you in Science?" Malik pressed.

I racked my brains, until I remembered the shy girl that blushed every time I spoke to her.

"Oh ,yeah. Um, what about her?" I was still hopelessly confused.

"Well, you know…." Malik and Yugi now both resembled tomatoes. "We so should have let Tea handle all this romantic stuff," Malik muttered.

It hit me. They thought I had a crush on someone in my class!

Okay, this was not what I was expecting. I was going through one of the worst emotional crises of my life, and here were my best friends wanting to have a talk about my love life. This situation was now bordering on the ridiculous.

"Um, guys? I really don't like her in that way. I couldn't even work out who you were talking about at first."

To be fair, they looked as though they were much more embarrassed than I was. They both went even redder (which I didn't think would have been possible) and stammered apologies.

"It's okay!" I was actually relieved that they weren't going to start on about Bakura. "I'm just a bit tired; I guess that's why I've been acting weird. Sorry to make you, well, jump to conclusions."

They both started to laugh, and after about five minutes of uncontrollable giggling, Yugi wiped his eyes and gasped out, "At least we didn't have to go through with that talk. I don't think I could have taken much more of it!"

Malik nodded. "Yeah. Oh, and just so you know, it was Joey that came up with that theory. He thought we should talk to you about it."

I smiled. "Couldn't be more wrong!"

Yugi stood up. "Well, if you don't mind I've got to get back to the Shop. Grandpa's waiting for me to take over for a few hours."

Malik and I watched the smaller boy leave the café, Malik fiddling with the salt shaker on the table.

"There was something else I wanted to ask you, actually."

I looked up, grinning. "More matchmaking? Really, Malik, I'll start to think you're just trying to pair me off!"

My grin faded, as I saw Malik's worried face. "Yugi told me about last night."

I groaned. This was what I had expected; I should have known that Malik would wait until the smaller boy had left before discussing this. Apart from the fact that he knew Bakura's strange relationship with me would be confusing to him, he respected my privacy too much to chat about my problems to anyone other than myself.

"Well?" he asked, quietly.

"Well, what?" I replied.

"Are you going to explain? No, let me explain for you. 'Don't worry, Malik, I can handle it. He's my yami, and for some stupid reason I am determined to do this whole thing on my own. He's really not that bad, you know. But I don't care if I get beaten up every day, I'm just too damn nice!'"

I tried to interrupt, and failed. Malik's famous temper had got the better of him. His hands flexed on the tablecloth, and he tried hard to control his breathing. Even though his voice had never risen above a hiss, I could see how he had managed to intimidate a large group of criminals into obeying his orders. Combine his temper with the fact that he could control people's minds if he wanted too, and he was really quite terrifying.

"Malik, calm down," I begged, under my breath. He flashed me a furious glare, but before he could reply the waitress arrived. Unfortunately for me she came up on my blind side.

"Can I get you anything, Sirs? Oh, are you all right, dear?"

To say I had jumped would be an understatement. I leapt up in my seat, knocking over anything that was within distance of my body. I was nervous enough already, and when I recovered I must have looked like a ghost; I was even whiter than usual, and I was breathing hard. Through a haze I vaguely heard Malik apologise to the waitress, making up something about my sudden nervous fits, and telling her politely that we didn't want anything. The waitress gave me a pitying look, and walked back to the bar.

I closed my eyes, and tried to calm myself down.

"What the hell was that all about?" Malik whispered, angrily.

I opened my eyes, to see him glaring at me from across the table.

"I guess I didn't see her coming," I replied weakly. My heart was still beating at twice its normal rate; this whole blind thing was getting exhausting.

"How could you not have seen her coming? She was standing right in front of you!"

It was probably because I was still recovering from the shock that I couldn't think of a plausible excuse. I just mumbled something, and avoided his gaze. Now, Malik can be seriously dense sometimes, but he has a knack for seeing what no one else can. Whilst anyone else would have asked me if I was having a nervous breakdown, or something like that, Malik picked up on my inability to see like a hound.

He leaned over and grabbed my head (I should say now that he is annoyingly strong) and held it in place, whilst I struggled in vain.

"Right, don't move your head, understand?" I nodded, realising that unless I could come up with an amazing lie in about five seconds, then there was no way I could fool him.

He held up three fingers, in front of my right eye.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three," I replied, praying he wouldn't repeat the experiment with my left eye. But he slowly moved his hand over to my blind side. He looked at me, with a face that showed he was just as terrified that I wouldn't be able to answer as I was. He didn't want his theory to be right.

He swallowed. "How many fingers?" he whispered.

I bowed my head, and a tear trickled down my face. "I don't know," I whispered. "I…I can't see."

Malik let go of my head and leaned back in his chair. He looked horrified. I wiped my eyes in frustration, and stared at my hands as they twisted in my lap.

"How long?" he choked out, in a hoarse voice.

"Only a couple of days. I guess I couldn't have kept anything from you for that long, could I?"

"Who… how...?" He seemed unable to sort out his thoughts.

I sighed in resignation, and told him everything.

"A few days ago, Bakura beat me …..pretty hard. I must have landed a funny way when he threw me, because when I woke up I couldn't see out of my left eye," I risked a glance at Malik's face- he still looked horrified, but now slightly angry as well. I gulped. "I decided not to tell anyone because…. well, because I didn't want you or Atem to send Bakura to the Shadows."

Here Malik seemed about to interrupt, but I shook my head, and he fell silent. "I know you're going to yell, stand up and storm out of here to kill Bakura as soon as I stop talking, but please listen to what I have to say first." I took a deep breath. "Bakura has really changed. He feels guilty about this whole thing, and he's finally starting to settle down, and he's actually becoming compassionate." I smiled tentatively at Malik. "You said it yourself: 'Eventually he's going to have to accept that you're his hikari, and until then you're just going to have to bear with him.' Malik, he's accepting me. I've been 'bearing with him' for years now, just waiting for him to start treating me with some respect and care. Now he has. Are you going to take that away from me?"

There was a long silence. Finally Malik replied, in a reluctant way, "No."

I grinned, but Malik continued, "I won't kill him, but there's no way Atem will let this pass."

I put on my best innocent expression. "That's why we're not going to tell him. Yet."

Malik glared at me. "No. No, no, no, no, no and no again. I am not going to start lying to protect that monster. Sorry Ryou, but I'm not going to help you conceal this from the others."

"Malik, please," I begged. "I'll tell them when I'm ready. I promise."

Then I turned on him my best weapon. The puppy dog eyes.

Malik rolled his eyes. "Fine. I hate it when you use that on me!"

I smiled smugly. Now that I had Malik on my side, this was going to get a lot easier.

* * *

***Grins sheepishly* I couldn't resist the whole love-life sequence. Just the idea of Malik and Yugi trying to give romantic advice makes me want to laugh! Anyway, thanks for reading! ^^**

**Always a Bookworm**


	7. A Visit from the Optician

**I am so sorry for not updating sooner. Basically, I saved this on a school computer, and then we went on holiday for a week, and I couldn't access it from home. Then fanfiction had a technical problem and I couldn't Login. Then I accidentally deleted the end.....It was very annoying. I really think this chapter is cursed!**

**Anyway, this chapter is kind of a build up to what happens in chapter 8 (which is going to be BIG! ^^). **

**Enjoy reading!**

* * *

I opened the door of my small house, still exhausted after the emotional rollercoaster that had been that morning. My mind was in turmoil; the combination of Yugi and Malik trying to playing matchmakers, Malik losing his temper, my shock at the waitress' unexpected entrance, and eventually his finding out my secret had worn me out. All of these strange events were whirling around in my head, and one of my main concerns was how Bakura would react to Malik's discovery.

I should probably explain that Malik and Bakura aren't exactly...... great friends. Marik quite liked my yami (you know what they say, psychos stick together) but Malik, although he respected and possibly even understood Bakura (he knows what it's like to be driven insane by being trapped in the dark for years) he remained very cold towards him. I don't think Malik hates Bakura, I just don't think he's his favourite person around. I've said it before; Malik is _very_ over protective of me.

Basically, they treated each other with respect, but not friendliness. Bakura only just tolerated me being friends with him ("Well its better than you hanging around with the Pharaoh's brat"), and I wasn't too sure how he'd react when I told him about Malik being in on the whole blind thing.

"Bakura?" I called, as I opened the door, dropping my keys on the hall table. A short 'here' told me where he was; lying on the sofa, reading one of my books.

"Hi," I smiled at him. He merely raised one of his hands to acknowledge me, still absorbed by the book.

I rolled my eyes. Just like him to ignore me. "Malik found out about my eye," I said, nonchalantly. This grabbed his attention.

"What?" he eyed me, plainly checking to see if I was fooling him.

"Yeah," I sighed, slumping down on the sofa next to him. "He figured it out."

Bakura gave me the look which meant 'How?'

"A waitress came up on my blind side. I, ahem, jumped. A bit."

"Hmmmm." I waited patiently, as Bakura processed this information. He may have been utterly crazy, but thousands of years of planning revenge on Atem meant that he was well practiced at thinking through things calmly and indifferently.

"Is he going to tell?" he asked, shortly.

I shook my head. "I persuaded him not to."

"Well, then. Nothing to worry about," and with that he went back to his book.

I went into the kitchen to make dinner. Bakura wasn't the kind of person that liked having deep talks. Conversations with him were usually sharp and to the point.

That reminded me of a conversation I'd once had with Yugi. He'd been asking me why Bakura was so blunt, and I'd replied it was probably because he was uncomfortable with long conversations with people. He revealed as little as possible about himself, and he was afraid that he might let something slip that could be seen as a weakness. Then Yugi had looked at me, and said something that surprised me quite a bit.

He'd said, "Wow. You really understand him."

I thought about this, as I chopped vegetables for dinner. At the time, I'd just assumed that I knew things about Bakura because we shared minds, but now I realised that I understood a lot more than just the basic way his mind worked.

I noticed when he'd dreamed about his family back in Egypt (although I couldn't see the actual dreams- he blocked me out whenever he went to sleep) because of the dark circles under his eyes, and the way he toyed with his breakfast the next day. I noticed that he was secretly fascinated by modern culture; he was always watching TV, and I once saw him reading my Modern History textbook, actually looking interested. I understood that he hated snow, or stormy weather ("It was never like this back in Egypt!") and that he loved cats. To be honest, I think I understood him at times better than he understood himself.

My thoughts were interrupted by a yell from the other room. "I know you're not cooking. Hurry up and make supper, I'm starving."

I blushed, realising that I'd been staring into space for the last five minutes, and the vegetables were still uncut. I hurriedly began chopping vegetables again. "Of course I was making the supper! What else would I have been doing?" I lied, shamelessly. He couldn't see me from the sofa; how did he know?!

"You were probably staring into space. I know for a fact you weren't cooking," came the call from the other room. "You weren't humming. You always hum when you're cooking. It drives me crazy!"

'I do?' I thought to myself.

But then I smiled, knowing that the understanding bond between us worked both ways.

*

The next few weeks passed by pretty quietly. I gradually became used to only having one eye, although I still found it hard to not fall over things. My hearing also became slightly more attuned, and I found it easier to tell when someone was coming up behind me.

I was just thinking that things were actually improving, when our teacher dropped a bombshell.

"Well, class, I hope you're all looking forward to the lecture on eye sight this afternoon. A specialist is coming all the way from Tokyo to teach you about your valuable gift of sight, and you'll all have an eye test to check if you need glasses. After all, teenage years are when your eyes develop fastest!**(1)**"

Most of the class had phased out during this speech, which was probably a good thing, because I had gone ashen white. I turned in my seat slightly until my eyes met Malik's. He was biting his lip, looking equally worried. 'Help' I mouthed at him. I must have looked as though I was about to pass out, because as soon as the teacher dismissed us, he dragged me out of the class room, down the corridor, and into a deserted music room.

"Okay, Ryou. Calm down. We'll be fine. I'll think of something, don't worry."

I tried to control my breathing. "How…did…we…not…realise…this…was….coming?" I gasped.

Malik frowned. "I don't know. Was it on the notice board?"

I glared at him. "How should I know? I never check the notice board, I'm always too busy. You?"

"Umm, not exactly. Well that explains why we didn't know."

I groaned, and slid down the wall, resting my head on my knees. "What the hell am I going to do?"

"You could pretend to be ill, and go home."

"I'll still have to take the eye test eventually.

Malik started pacing up and down. "What we need is to fool the specialist," he remarked thoughtfully.

I laughed, dryly. "And how are we going to do that? You can just see for me?"

Malik snapped his head around, eyes alight. "We may do just that...." His voice trailed off as he began to formulate a plan in his mind. I sighed. Knowing the complexity of Malik's plans, it would probably be simpler to emigrate.

*

That afternoon, we all took our seats ready for the lecture. I was terrified, and Malik wasn't exactly calm either. We had not been able to come up with an idea, and everything relied on me not being picked out of the class for the specialist to demonstrate how an eye test went. He would only need one 'guinea pig'.

I mean, what were the chances of me being picked out of everyone in my class?

Judging the way Fate delights in torturing me, I can assure you I was not surprised when I was picked out for the demonstration.

I gulped, praying that I would be able to bluff my way through the torture. I stood up slowly, walked to the front of the class, and sat down in the optician's chair. The specialist smiled at me, and began to fiddle with the equipment that would reveal me to be blind. I was beginning to panic.

"Well, would you mind reading the chart?" the specialist prompted.

I read out the letters in a faltering voice. "Very good," he said, turning to the rest of the class. "What I'm now going to show you is how we identify problems in each separate eye. Now, Ryou was it?, please put your left eye against the lens."

Brilliant. I was going to be humiliated in front of my entire class, they would all realise how weak I was, and Bakura would be hauled off to prison for child abuse. Trembling, I put my left eye to the lens.

"Please tell me what you can see."

At that moment Malik proved that he was a real friend. Albeit he was a slightly strange friend, because what he did next completely shocked me, the class, the teacher, and most of all, the specialist.

He stood up behind his desk and yelled, "Stop!" Ignoring the stares and quiet giggles that were around him, he carried on with his speech. "I've seen that man before- on a Wanted poster at the police station in Tokyo! He's wanted for murder!"

Everyone looked completely nonplussed, especially the poor eye specialist. "He's going to kill us all- that's probably an instrument of torture that he's forcing Ryou into!"

The teacher was now looking at the specialist suspiciously, and the murmurs from my classmates were now almost fearful.

"Maybe we should step outside for a minute," my teacher told the now completely bewildered doctor.

"But….but…I…I don't…I…" he stammered as my teacher began to pull him out of the classroom. He clutched to the eye equipment as though it was his last hope, and in doing so he hit my bad eye with the lens. I gasped slightly; it still hurt even several weeks later.

Unfortunately, a certain very over protective best friend saw this. That was when Malik got a little carried away.

He literally leapt at the doctor, shouting "Get away from Ryou! Your nefarious plan will never succeed!"

I've never seen a man more terrified. He ran out of the door as though he was pursued by the hounds of hell, screaming unintelligible ramblings. This did make him look a bit like a murdering psychopath, so the rest of my class had no trouble believing Malik's story.

I sat on the chair, trying to work out what had just happened. Malik straightened up ,whilst the teacher ran out after the doctor and the rest of the class exploded into excited conversation, and walked over to where I was sitting.

"I think that went pretty well," he grinned, cheerfully.

I shook my head, despairing. "Accusing him of murder was the only thing you could think of? Couldn't you have controlled him with the Rod, or at least something less dramatic."

"We needed to make a scene; it was the only way to completely stop your test, and Ishizu has confiscated the Rod after an incident with the neighbour's dog (which I still maintain was neither mine nor Marik's fault). Besides, I enjoyed that," he smiled in satisfaction.

Note to self, _never _ask for Malik's help again.

*

Just when you think your life can't get any more complicated, something like that happens, I thought as I walked home from school. At least things can't get much worse.

I forgot then exactly how much fate enjoys watching me suffer. Things could, and would, get a lot worse.

* * *

**(1.) According to my optician.**

**Hope you liked it!**

**Always a Bookworm**


	8. Proof that Fate hates me

**Living in the Dark, Take 8! **

**This chapter was really hard to write, so I hope I ended up with something close to good!**

**I'm not sure how many more chapters there are going to be, but I doubt there'll be more than 11- yep, we're approaching the end. You can all breathe a sigh of relief!**

**Enjoy reading!**

* * *

"Well? Do you want to come?" I jerked out of my daydream, to find Yugi standing in front of my desk, looking at me quizzically.

"Um, sorry?" I mumbled, trying to stifle a yawn.

He raised an eyebrow. "Wow, Ryou. You're really tired today. I was just wondering if you'd like to come round to the Shop tonight."

I shook my head. "No thanks. I've got a ton of homework."

"Oh, okay," he smiled at me, and went to join his friends.

I rested my head back on my arms. I _was_ tired. I hadn't slept much last night, because of the dreams.

I often had nightmares; they were something I was well accustomed to. Dreams about the car crash that killed my mother and little sister. I would have dreams about my father, in which he never came home. I would have dreams where Bakura died, and left me all alone. But there was one dream that scared me more than anything. This was strange, because I could only ever remember one thing about it when I woke up.

In this dream, Bakura was crying. He was calling my name in a terrified voice, over and over, begging me to wake up.

I don't know why this scared me so much, but I always woke up with tears of my own running down my face, and I could never get back to sleep.

And this was the reason I was falling asleep on my desk.

*

The bell finally rang, at the end of a very long day. I sighed in relief, and began to pack up my bag. I had so much extra homework; I'd fallen asleep in nearly all my lessons, and my teachers hadn't best pleased.

Yugi and his friends were standing at the school gate, waiting for me.

"Hi," I grinned at them.

"You sure you don't want to come?" Tea asked, in a concerned voice.

It hit me then that probably all thought that Bakura had forbidden me to go, or something along those lines.

"Seriously, I've got a lot of homework. Besides, I'm really tired and…" I interrupted myself with a massive yawn.

Tea laughed. "You do look exhausted! Well, see you tomorrow."

The rest of my friends echoed her, and began to walk towards Yugi's Shop.

"See you tomorrow, then!" I waved goodbye to my friends, smiling, and turned to cross the road outside school.

I don't really remember what happened next.

I was walking across the road, when a girl screamed. There were voices calling my name. I turned towards them, confused, when I saw a huge truck bearing down on me.

I couldn't move.

I didn't have time.

It hit me.

Pain flooded through my body, as I was flung through the air. I couldn't even feel the impact when I hit the ground; I was virtually unconscious by that stage. I tried to call out, but I couldn't speak. I tried to open my one working eye, but I couldn't move the lid.

"Call an ambulance," I heard a panicked voice. Yugi's.

"Ryou, Ryou, come on, man, speak up." Joey. Tugging at my shirt sleeve.

"P…p..lease b..be o..okay," a whisper from Tea. I could hear her in floods of tears.

"Ryou!" Tristan. He sounded as though there was no hope.

I heard more of my friends moving around me, shocked, terrified.

Then….

Yugi's voice, trying to keep someone away, by the sounds of it.

"What's happened? Let me past!" Oh no. Malik.

"Ryou!" I could hear the raw terror in his voice. The utter and complete horror.

I could feel him clutching my arm, tears splashing on my exposed skin. Tears? Malik never cried.

I wanted so badly to comfort him, but I couldn't move.

But there was someone that they had to call, someone that had to know what had happened. I wanted him there even more than I wanted my best friend.

I heard the ambulance arrive, and the paramedics move my friends away, but in my last act of strength I grabbed Malik's wrist.

"Ryou?" He sounded hopeful, but his voice was hoarse from crying.

"Bakura…. Please get him for me," I managed to whisper. I don't know if he heard me, I don't even know if I was actually talking, but before he could reply, I was lifted onto a stretcher and rolled into the ambulance.

That was all I could remember before I fell into darkness.

Faces swam before my eyes. Yugi's kind expression as he asked me if there was anything he could do for me. Tea's laughing eyes as she described her dream of becoming a dancer. Tristan's quiet but solid presence. Joey's idiocy. Duke's arrogance. Atem's majesty. Malik's….well, everything about him, really. I remembered his protectiveness. I remembered how, even if I was going to die, I was glad that I'd had a best friend.

More faces. My father's. Would he come home for my funeral, or would he be too caught up in his work? My mother's and Amane's. Would I see them again, if I did die?

Then there was Bakura's face. He was crying, and I could hear him begging me to wake up, like in my dream. It _was _my dream. Only this time I couldn't wake up.

*

The only thing I could see or feel, for the next few days was darkness. Or hours, maybe. Could have been years for all I knew.

Was this death?

Was this it?

I couldn't die.

I knew that much.

I had to tell Bakura it wasn't his fault. He believed that it was; I'd heard him saying that when he was beside my body.

And I knew why he thought it was his fault.

Because the reason I had walked into the road and been hit by the truck, was not because I was tired. Or because I hadn't been paying attention. It was because I hadn't seen the truck coming.

The truck had come up on my blind side.

So Bakura thought it was his fault. And if I died, I would never be able to reassure him that it wasn't.

This was _not_ good.

_Hikari….. please wake up. Why aren't you waking up? You can't leave. You can't. Please._

***Sighs in satisfaction* I love dramatic scenes. It's a weakness! ^^**

**Always a Bookworm**

* * *


	9. Ryou: 1 Death: 0

**Sorry for the long wait! I kept changing this chapter, and I'm not sure I like the finished result! Nothing much happens, but Chap 10 is going to be interesting...... **

**Anyway, I hope you like it!**

* * *

My body hurt. A lot. That was the first thing I registered. And that it was very dark. I couldn't work out why. I tried to open my eyes, but couldn't. I told myself not to panic. Where was I? Why couldn't I move?

I could vaguely feel stiff sheets under my fingers. I could hear the squeaking of shoes on polished floors, and the busy hum of a workplace.

Well, there's the plus side. You can hear, I told myself. Even if you can't move or see, at least that's something.

Since when did I get so optimistic?

Anyway, back to the problem at hand. What had happened? It sounded like I was in a hospital.

Then it all came flooding back. The truck, the pain, the fear…..

If I could have moved my mouth, or used my vocal chords, I would have laughed at how ironic my situation was. Unfortunately, I couldn't.

"Ryou?" It was Bakura's voice. "It's me."

Yeah, I figured _that_ out.

"You've been unconscious for four days now."

Four days?! Please tell me he's joking.

"The doctors say that you can probably hear people talking, so I thought I'd give it a try." I could picture him shifting uncomfortably in his chair; he was awkward enough talking to me when I was able to talk back, so he must be really embarrassed right about now.

"Ryou, it's all my fault. I feel terrible. And I haven't felt guilt in 3,000 years, so this is a big step for me. I guess you're rubbing off on me a bit." I heard him laugh, sadly.

I wanted so badly to tell him that it wasn't his fault, and that he shouldn't blame himself. But I couldn't.

"I know that you're probably thinking 'It's not your fault, Bakura, don't blame yourself' but we are both very aware that that's not true. You got hit by that truck because you are blind on your left side. And you can't say _that's_ not my fault."

I couldn't think of anything to say to that.

"Ryou, what I'm trying to say is that I'm really sorry. This is my fault, and I will never forgive myself if you don't wake up."

It was very strange, but at that moment I felt happy. Despite the fact that I was in a coma, I still felt joy when my yami gave the slightest hint that he cared.

"And I can't stop hoping that you will wake up. You're a fighter, Ryou. Just like me. You've never given up before, and now's a really bad time to start. You're going to wake up, and walk out of this hospital, and prove to everyone that you're not a weak host that let's himself get pushed around. You're going to prove it to yourself."

A fighter? What was he talking about? I was weak. He always said that I was weak…. Then I realised something. I realised that the only thing keeping me from waking up was my own conviction that I couldn't.

He was right. Of course he was right. I never give in. Never. Not when my mother and sister had died, and my father had left me. Not when I got taken over by an Egyptian spirit bent on revenge. Not when I was bullied, or when my friends fell into comas, or when my other half did such horrific things that I was tortured by guilt for months afterward. Not when my entire mind was overwhelmed by darkness, or when I was caught up in the Shadow Games. And not when I was blinded. So why should a tiny, insignificant collision with a truck faze me?

Slowly, I felt a warm feeling spread up from my toes to the top of my head. I tried to twitch one of my fingers, and, in delight, felt it respond. I sighed slightly, enjoying the fact that I could move my mouth, and heard the boy beside me shift.

"Ryou?" he whispered. "Ryou, can you hear me?" His voice rose in excitement, and I felt him grip my arm tightly. "Ryou! Ryou! You can do it! Wake up, come on!"

With a massive effort I pulled myself out of the darkness. I opened my eyes slowly, so scared that I might not be able to see at all, and there was my yami.

"B...ba..Bakura?" My tongue felt heavy in my mouth, and my voice was hoarse from disuse.

"Ryou? Oh, thank Ra," he sat back in his chair in relief, eyes shining. His expression was strange. It took me a while to realise that he was... smiling. Not a sadistic I'm-going-to-tear-out-your-soul-whilst-watching-you-squirm-in-agony-and-I'm-going-to-enjoy-it sort of smile. A really happy-to-see-you smile. He was actually glad to see me wake up.

I smiled weakly back. "Hey."

He suddenly let go of my arm, his expression changing instantaneously from relief to fury.

"You idiot! How could you do something so stupid?! Getting yourself hit by a truck.... Stupid, stupid, stupid! All of your little friends have been so worried about you, hell, I was worried about you...."

As if he had said too much, he stood up abruptly and walked over to the window, his back to me.

"Um, sorry?" I couldn't work out why he was so angry. I tried to see his expression, but he turned his face away from me.

He sighed, and leaned his forehead against the glass. "When they called me to say you'd been hit by a truck...I thought you were dead, hikari. I've never been so scared in my entire life."

Oh. That's why he's angry. Well, I reasoned with myself, he probably hasn't been concerned for another human being in several thousand years, so it's probably a bit of a new feeling.

I leaned out of bed, reaching out my hand and caught the back of his jacket. He started, but still refused to turn and look at me. I clutched the material, and whispered, "I'm sorry, yami. I'll be more careful in the future. Promise."

Before I knew what was happening he had turned and pulled me into a tight embrace. I squeaked in surprise and the slight jolt of pain that it sent down my spine, but enjoyed the feeling all the same. His fingers tightened in the back of my shirt, and I buried my face in his hair. My mind was racing. Bakura _never_ hugged me. He would shudder in horror if I even said the word 'hug'. It was a way of showing affection, and, if I was honest with myself, Bakura wasn't exactly the most affectionate person around. He must have been really worried…..

And before I knew it, I had started to cry. For the first time since I'd first been blinded I was crying. Really crying. My tears leaked onto Bakura's shirt, and he stiffened.

"What?" he asked, in an anxious voice, pushing me away, and looking at me in concern.

"Nothing" I whispered.

Then I smiled at him, and buried my face in his shirt again.

"I'm just really happy."

And I was.

* * *

**Oh, the fluff. If you made it through this chapter without dying due to overloads of fluff , I'll see you next time! **

**Thanks for reading! ^^**

**Always a Bookworm**


	10. My Secret's Out

**Wow, I updated. *Everyone gasps in shock* Um, sorry about the long wait. *Tries to think of excuse. Fails.* Sorry! **

**I love this chapter. It was so hard to start, but then the words just came, which is very rare for me. It's also the longest chapter so far. It was just so much fun to write, so I really hope you enjoy it.**

**There is a hint of polarshipping (JoeyxMai) in this, but if you blink you miss it, so I wouldn't worry.**

**Anyway, have fun! ^^**

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It was good to see all of my friends again. The relief on their faces when they saw me awake warmed my heart. Tea immediately burst into floods of happy tears and flung her arms round my neck (which hurt, might I add) and the rest of my friends stood around looking awkward but very glad to see me.

Malik, although plainly overjoyed at my safe recovery, glared, and informed me I was the most accident prone, dim witted, empty headed fool with a death wish that he had ever had the misfortune to meet. He actually used a lot more adjectives, but I lost count after the first four. He's really quite eloquent when he wants to be.

Bakura had not left my side since I'd woken up. Any nurse that tried to timidly explain the concept of 'visiting hours' to him received his signature glare- narrowing his red eyes, baring his fang-like front teeth and saying quietly but clearly "I am not moving. I don't care if the hospital 'isn't open to visitors right now'. I'm staying right here. Understand?" This, combined with the manic smile and the blood red gleam of his eyes always ensured that the poor nurse nodded quickly and left the room looking as though she'd just narrowly escaped death.

In fact, all of the doctors and nurses that came to check up on me were always very eager to leave the room as soon as they could, which _might_ have had something to do with the way Bakura always eyed them as a cat would a mouse. I really should talk with him about that. However, that conversation would probably end the same way as the one where I told him that he couldn't just beat up random strangers because they looked at him in a strange way- with him completely ignoring me and carrying on doing it regardless.

It was two days after I woke up that the disaster happened. I should have seen it coming, I suppose. I guess I just assumed that no more terrible things could happen to me. I thought I was immune to anything that could possibly be thrown at me. Ha ha. Yeah right. Fate just couldn't resist one last joke at my expense. One last large joke. Although I don't think anyone found it funny.

We were all in my hospital room- all of my friends around my bed, chatting and laughing. Everyone- Bakura, Malik, Marik, Yugi, Atem, Tea, Joey, Tristan and Duke. It was quite crowded, especially when you consider all of the flowers and other gifts sent by well wishers. There were some from the Kaibas (well, Mokuba really, there's no way Seto would bother) Mai Valentine (which was kind of her as I only really knew her as Joey's girlfriend) Serenity and various others. I was flattered by the way people actually seemed to care about my accident. Of course, there were none from my father, but I'd never expected any. So there they all were, crammed around my bed, when a doctor came in. I wasn't too surprised; I had regular check ups throughout the day, although my body was healing fast, and I hoped to be out of the hospital soon.

"Well, Mr. Bakura, you seem to be doing fine," he said, checking my chart. "Anything you want to tell us?" he asked, smiling at me.

"No, sir. I'm actually feeling a lot better," I replied, returning his smile.

"Good, good. Always nice to have your friends around you," he glanced at my friends.

"Yes, sir."

He returned to reading my chart, eyes skimming over the information. All perfectly normal, until he frowned.

"Odd… Very odd," he muttered. Coming over to my bed, he pulled out a small flash light which he used to shine in both of my eyes. When they saw this, both Malik and Bakura stiffened.

"Yes it is, but how strange…" the doctor continued to murmur, straightening up and scribbling something down. I ignored the anxious twinge in my stomach.

"What is it?" I asked, keeping my voice steady. They can't. They can't tell, oh please, don't say they can tell if I'm blind…

"Well, the thing is your pupil isn't responding in your left eye. Not only that, but the retina and optic nerve are both badly damaged, according to some tests that we ran earlier. Even if your pupil and retina were fine, there's no way you would be able to see out of your left eye if the optic nerve is damaged. You should be completely blind in your left eye! But you're plainly not- most people would have mentioned the fact that they couldn't see, right?" he chuckled.

I laughed weakly. "Yeah…"

"And the really strange thing is, the damage can't have been caused by the crash, because it looks too old! Well, anyway, I'm off to find an ophthalmologist. They're the ones that specialise in eye damage- they should be able to tell you what's going on. Don't worry, everything is going to be fine."

I watched him go with a sinking feeling. Okay, we may have a problem.

My friends were all looking at me anxiously. "Ryou, are you all right?" Tea asked, worriedly. "From what he said you shouldn't be able to see…"

"I'm absolutely fine!" I laughed unconvincingly. "I mean it, they must have taken the data down wrong, probably just some clerical error."

My voice died away. There was no way that they were going to believe this lie. Annoying really. I spend five years hoping that my friends would figure out that there was something wrong (namely a vengeful spirit possessing my body whenever he felt like it) but now that I actually want to keep something from them, they all become extremely perceptive. Just my luck.

Atem was eyeing my yami suspiciously. Without looking away from Bakura he said quietly: "Ryou, would you mind telling me what's underneath the window?"

The window was on my left side, so I began to turn slightly in order to answer him, but he interrupted me. "No, without turning. It's in your line of sight, isn't it?"

I shot a panicked look at Bakura. _Don't worry,_ he sent through the mind link,_ I'll look and tell you._

_But it's behind you as well!_ I replied_ Atem will know if you turn and look!_

Sure enough: "Oh, and the Thief can't tell you through your mind link," Atem folded his arms and continued to glower at my yami, who returned the glare. "Well?"

I hung my head, and closed my eyes. This was it. I'd lost. Angry tears pricked at the backs of my lids. I couldn't believe it! After all the trouble I'd gone through, everything I had was about to be destroyed. Suddenly I knew how Bakura always felt when he was defeated by the Pharaoh in his Shadow Games. It wasn't a pleasant feeling.

"I can't see," I muttered.

"What?" Yugi whispered in a horrified voice. I straightened up, and looked at them all.

"I said I can't see. I'm blind in my left eye."

I have to say I was quite pleased that I didn't cry at this point. Plainly all of the years spent with Bakura punching me if I so much as whimpered had finally come in handy.

My friend's all reacted pretty much how I thought they would. They all gasped, and then started asking questions all at once. If it hadn't been caused by the crash, then how did it happen? When did it happen? Why didn't I tell them?

I winced. This was going to be hard to explain. Seeing this, Malik yelled "Okay, enough already! Shut the hell up, or I will personally seal your mouths closed for you!"

This worked, unsurprisingly. They all stopped talking, and just looked at me, with expressions ranging from confusion to sympathy on their faces.

"Okay, thank you. Now Ryou, would you please explain this whole thing," Malik continued, calmly.

I wasn't the only one to notice Malik's lack of reaction to the news. "Hey, Malik. How come you're not freaking out about this like the rest of us, huh?" Joey asked, puzzled.

Malik looked at him like it was obvious.

"Because Ryou told me about five weeks ago!" he said, rolling his eyes. Then he realised what he'd just said, after hearing the renewed gasps of everyone else in the room, and tried to back track. "Not five weeks, what am I saying? Of course Ryou hasn't been blind for five weeks without telling you, um, I meant five days… yep that's what I meant to say…."

He gave up when he realised that no one believed him in the slightest.

Marik patted his hikari's arm from the chair that he was slouching in. "Way to go, Malik. Feel free to continue making Ryou's situation as uncomfortable as you possibly can."

Malik slumped back into his chair, scowling at his yami. "Oh shut up."

I presumed from Marik's ability to make jokes at a time like this that he knew as well, but then I remembered that keeping secrets from your other half is pretty hard, so I couldn't really blame Malik. Anyway, that wasn't the biggest problem at hand.

I took a deep breath. "Okay, I'll tell you. Just promise you won't lose your temper until you've heard me out." This was directed at Atem, who nodded his head in reply.

I looked at Bakura, who also nodded, and at the same time squeezed my hand under the covers. _You would have had to tell them eventually, hikari. Don't worry about me._

"Right. Okay then. Well, about five weeks ago Bakura beat me and threw me against a wall pretty hard."

If looks could kill then my yami would have been very, very dead by now from the ones my friends were directing him.

"Bakura, how could you?" Tea said angrily. Tristan and Duke were both having trouble restraining Joey from hitting Bakura, and Atem looked absolutely furious, although he had probably known something like this was bound to happen all along.

However, my yami replied in a completely relaxed tone. "Why don't you let Ryou finish."

I smiled tentatively at him, and then continued to speak. "When I woke up, I was completely blind in my left eye. The reason I didn't tell you was because I knew that this was how you would react. You would all hate Bakura for what he did, and then Atem would probably send him to the Shadow Realm." Atem looked like this was exactly what he wanted to do, but Yugi placed a restraining hand on his shoulder, and the Pharaoh bit back his interruption.

"I… I don't want him to be sent away. Please. It happened before and I don't think I can take it again." I stared determinedly at my lap, not daring to look at anyone's face. "So I'm begging you, please forget that this happened, and forgive him. I did that a long time ago." A single tear dripped onto my hands that twisted in my lap. So much for keeping back the tears, I thought angrily.

It was silent for some time. I peered through the hair hanging over my face, and saw that they all looked uncertain. Bakura's face was completely blank, but I could sense his confused emotions through the mind link.

"Well," Yugi's voice cut through the silence. "I trust you, Ryou. If you say he's a better person now, then I'll believe you. I wouldn't want to cause you any more pain."

I looked up to see genuine affection shining in his eyes. "Thank you," I whispered, smiling at him.

"I'm with Yugi," Joey announced, which was followed by the rest of my friends. Tea gripped my hand comfortingly, but, much to Bakura's delight, she didn't go into a friendship speech.

Only Atem remained. We all looked at him, waiting for a decision. I pleaded with my eyes.

Eventually he said, slowly, "You trust him now, but how do you know he won't just turn on you again in the future?"

Bakura growled back, "Oh don't worry, Pharaoh. I'll be good. When I'm around Ryou that is… I can't make any promises to be nice to your little gaggle of friends!"

I groaned mentally. No, you idiot! Sure enough, this was the last straw for Atem. He stood up quickly, eyes flashing.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't send you to the Shadow Realm right now!" he hissed, clenching his fists. Yugi tried to pull him back down, but Atem shook of his hand.

Bakura also stood up, his quick temper rising to the bait. "Maybe because you're not powerful enough to send me there!"

"Oh, I'll defeat you alright! You're nothing but a Thief!"

"At least I'm not some pompous brat that spends his life having other people to his dirty work for him!"

"You're a murderer!"

"Excuse me? Was it _my_ father that ordered _your_ entire village to be killed?!"

"You know that wasn't my father!"

"So it was your uncle, big deal. Same tyrannical family!"

I shot a despairing look at Yugi, who looked equally helpless. I began to worry when the distinctive purple fog of the Shadow Realm started to wind it's way around the room, but luckily Malik had regained control of the situation.

"This is a hospital, you fools! You start a Shadow Game here, you'll wind up killing someone!" he spat, angrily pointing the Rod at both of them. "Do I have to take over your minds before you start acting like adults instead of bad tempered five year olds?!"

Atem looked slightly guilty, and Bakura avoided my irritated gaze.

"Okay, then. Marik, your cue."

"Huh?" Marik had plainly been looking forward to the Shadow Game, as he looked slightly disappointed, as well as confused. "What do you want me to do?"

Malik kicked him under my bed. "Ow, stop that! Oh, right…"

Marik stood up. "Right you two. We're all going to go outside and see if you can sort this out. If not," he began to smile evilly, "Then I'll just have to knock some sense into your heads!"

Before either of the yamis could protest they dragged outside, and along the corridor by Marik, who was clearly hoping that they would not 'see sense'. Marik was quite a bit bigger than Atem, and Bakura isn't exactly tall, so it was quite easy for him to drag them out.

Yugi and I glared at Malik, who was sitting back in his chair, looking very pleased with himself.

"You got Marik to try and get them to solve their differences. Marik? MARIK? The one person _more _likely start a Shadow Game than Bakura? What were you thinking?" I almost shouted.

Malik shrugged. "He's not that bad, really. I'm sure it'll be fine. They probably just need to work off some steam; I just got Marik to take them out of the building so that they can duel in peace."

I stared at him as though he was crazy. Then Yugi shook his head, and laughed. "You're probably right. Atem just needs a good duel to calm him down, and I'm sure that Bakura will be more than happy to duel him. Don't worry, Ryou, everything's going to be all right."

I lay back on my pillow, feeling exhausted. All I wanted to do was sleep, but because of the loud argument I could hear through the window, I doubted that was going to happen anytime soon.

At least everything was out in the open. I could only hope that Yugi was right, and Atem would forgive Bakura eventually.

My friends continued to talk, quietly, as I drifted off to sleep.

Everything was going to be fine…

I hope.

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**And in the next chapter we find out how Marik solves other peoples problems. Oh, this is going to be fun.... *Grins evilly***

**Anyway, I think the next chapter is going to be the last one. Maybe the one after that.... I love this story so much I'm dragging it out a bit!**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Always a Bookworm**


	11. Happy Endings all round!

***Wipes tears from her eyes* Oh well. I guess this is it. I have to say, I'm really going to miss this story. I've had so much fun writing it, and I hope you all had at least some fun reading it.**

**Oh, before I forget, the first part of the chapter is in 3rd person POV. I don't usually like changing POVs constantly, but it really wouldn't have worked in Ryou's POV. It switches back half way through though.**

**Before you read the final *sob* chapter, I'd like to thank: SkywardShadow (fellow fluff lover, and writer of some of the best reviews ever!^^) Comicbookfan (who made me realise I could make this funny without ruining the story), pride1289 ( the first to review almost every chapter!) Amaya the Winged Fox (who's reviews always cheered me up, and who shares my obsession with Ryou) and to Journey Maker (who I hope is pleased now that I gave them a happy ending!)**

**Thank you all so much! You made this story worth writing. Thanks to everyone else that reviewed as well, but I couldn't mention everyone, sadly. I'll miss you all! **

**'Kay. I've babbled enough. Enjoy the last chapter of Living in the Dark!**

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"Filthy Thief!"

"Don't you even think about talking to me like that, you puffed up son of a bitch!"

Marik rolled his eyes in exasperation. Things were not going as planned. Contrary to what Malik had confidently assured him would happen, neither Bakura nor Atem were backing down from their fight. They had duelled, and Atem had won (unsurprisingly) which just made Bakura more furious and Atem more arrogant. Marik had dragged the pair into the (luckily deserted) hospital car park, and had spent the last two hours listening to them bicker, whilst ignoring the disapproving looks they were receiving from various staff members, and to be honest he was decidedly sick of the two's argument.

Malik was being very unhelpful at the other end of the mind link. All he'd said was not to blow anything up, not to kill/maim anyone and not to send anyone to the Shadow Realm. What am I supposed to do if I can't send them to the Shadows!, Marik thought indignantly. Sometimes Malik was just downright unreasonable. To make matters worse Malik had held onto the Rod, so now Marik couldn't even _threaten_ his fellow yamis. Yes, Malik thought, life was just unfair.

It was when Bakura brought up the fact that Atem's uncle was responsible for the death of his village for the twenty-sixth time that Marik decided to intervene. Pulling them forcibly apart, he held them both at arm's length by their ears. When he had successfully grabbed their attention by doing this, he growled, "Right, that's it. I've had enough of babysitting what I can only describe as the most immature king the world has ever seen" (here Atem gave a sort of indignant 'Hey' and Bakura grinned, until Marik twisted both of their ears harder) " and a megalomaniac of a thief that clearly has issues with the concept of 'backing down from an argument'. Now, when I let go you are both going to listen to me, or I swear I will rip your tongues out so you can't interrupt me!"

Atem nodded, and Bakura glared, so Marik released their ears, which was followed by sighs of relief.

"You didn't have to twist so hard," Atem said reproachfully, rubbing his ear.

"For once I agree," grumbled Bakura. "And I am not a megalomaniac!"

Marik ignored him and folded his arms. "Are you two ever going to start acting your age? You bicker like a pair of two-year-olds!"

He was interrupted by simultaneous "He started it!"s from the others.

"See what I mean?! Look, you two. You're not in Ancient Egypt anymore. You can't keep on fighting like this. Plainly, you both use anger as a defence mechanism, as you can't express your true feelings due to deep rooted trauma that probably stems from your childhood," Marik nodded wisely.

Atem and Bakura stared at him in astonishment. "What the hell was that?" Bakura asked incredulously.

Marik shrugged. "I got it from Malik's shrink. Ishizu's making me go to therapy with him now, you know, after the incident with the dog."

Atem winced, and Bakura tutted sympathetically. "That's pretty harsh. Especially considering you brought the dog back virtually unharmed!"

"Yeah, I know," Then he shook his head. "Wait, that's not the issue here!" Marik sighed. "Okay, I know I'm not exactly the best person to school you both on anger management, but I think you should really listen to what I'm saying. Even if you carry on hating each other, that's fine, as long as it doesn't affect our hikaris. Just try, okay? For them. Haven't we put them through enough?" Marik finished quietly. He looked intently at Atem and Bakura.

"Think about it," he said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. There was a long pause.

"I guess I can cope with the Pharaoh," Bakura muttered gruffly, scuffing the ground with his shoe. "If it's for Ryou."

Atem sighed. "Likewise, Thi- I mean, Bakura."

Bakura looked up in shock. "You just called me by my name!"

Atem grinned. "Yeah."

***

When they arrived back in the hospital room, they found everyone gone apart from Yugi and Malik, who were both asleep by Ryou's bed. Yugi was curled up in his chair, his head resting on Malik's shoulder, and Ryou's hand lay lightly on Yugi's arm. All three were smiling peacefully, as though they'd never heard of dark magic, or yamis, or ancient powers.

Wordlessly, Bakura returned to his seat for his vigil beside Ryou's bed, whilst Atem and Marik gently shook their hikaris awake. Or rather, Atem gently shook Yugi awake, and Marik prodded Malik not-so-gently until he got a response.

Yugi blinked sleepily, as he looked up at Atem. "Did you sort it out? Is everything all right?" he whispered, voice heavy with exhaustion.

"Yep," Marik said proudly. "I fixed everything. Aren't I incredible?"

"Now who's a megalomaniac?" Bakura muttered under his breath, and to everyone's surprise Atem chuckled.

Malik yawned, and pinched his yami's arm. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever. You're incredible. Just don't wake Ryou up."

Marik rubbed his arm, and glared at his hikari, but remained silent. Yugi smiled, tiredly. "I'm glad."

"Yes," murmured Atem. "Let's go."

Whispering goodbye to Bakura, the four slipped out. Only Malik saw Ryou peering through his lashes, half asleep. He gave a thumbs up, and mouthed 'Told you so!' Ryou smiled, closed his eyes, and drifted back to sleep. The last thing he felt before falling into oblivion was his yami's reassuring squeeze on his hand

***

So I guess everything worked out in the end. Yeah, it was happy endings all round, really. I mean, apart from me being blinded in one eye and all. The doctors say there's nothing they can do, but I don't really mind. Don't tell anyone, but I'm almost glad that this happened. I don't think I would have grown so close to my yami if it hadn't.

Okay, enough of all the sap, as Bakura would say. Back to the happy endings.

Well, I was released from the hospital a few days later. Of course, the doctors alerted the school, and the police, so there were a few explanations to be made. I just told everyone that I'd fallen down the stairs, and I hadn't told anyone because I was 'in denial'. At least, that's the excuse the psychiatrist came up with, and I decided that it sounded believable enough.

I had to cope with various sympathetic glances for a while at school, but now the drama's died down it's not a big deal.

Of course, all of my friends know the truth. But they've been true to their word, and have really forgiven Bakura. And you know what the weirdest thing is? Bakura and Atem actually seem to be getting along! If you'd ask either of them they'd deny it vehemently, but now the insults they throw at each other are almost affectionate, and they've started having long conversations about life back in Egypt. Everyone thinks it's hilarious, and Marik takes all the credit. He keeps going on about how we should all thank him for sorting out a pair that we never thought be 'sorted out'. Malik says we should thank his psychiatrist.

What else is there to say? Everyone's lives are back on track. Tea is starting to progress with her dream of becoming a dancer (which means we have to sit through a lot of rehearsals to tell her 'if she's doing okay'. Like any of us have a clue!), Kaiba and Duke's respective businesses are flourishing, and the various relationships throughout the gang are going pretty well. Yugi and Atem are still ruling the gaming world. Having 'twin brothers' being joint King of Games made the papers go wild when it was announced, but they've both proved themselves enough times to quell any rumours about 'cheating'. Malik and Marik bought their neighbour a new puppy to go with the one that's still recovering, and are both living as best they can in their own dysfunctional way. Ishizu's given up on ever having a normal family. Rishid never had any hope in the first place.

As for me, Bakura and I are getting along great. Everything I ever hoped would come true has. I know that there'll be more challenges for us, but now I've got Bakura, I'm pretty sure I can meet them head on.

And you know what?

For the first time in seven years I can wake up and face the day with a smile on my face.

I can face the future with a smile on my face.

I lived in the dark for so long. I've finally found my way out into the light.

So, smiling all the way, with my friends around me and holding the hand of my other half, I'll walk into the light. _We'll_ walk into the light.

Together.

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**See, I even gave the poor neighbour's dog (that actually seemed to appear in more chapters than I'd intended) a happy ending! Aren't I a softy?!**

**So, yeah. I'll see you all around! Bye, and thanks again.**

**Always a Bookworm**


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